Art Harvest

06.25.13

Nebraska Meets Lower Manhattan

The Daily Pic: In 1982, Agnes Denes cultivated wheat in Battery Park.

From the very interesting "Expo 1" show at PS1 comes this image of Agnes Denes's 1982 project called "Wheatfield – A Confrontation: Battery Park Landfill, Downtown Manhattan". The title says it all: A wheatfield planted and then harvested on remediated landfill at Battery Park in far lower Manhattan, as it awaited development. The project is smart and powerful and beautiful on so many levels – and of course having the Twin Towers in the background gives it added potency, now. None of Denes's issues, in art or politics or economics or ecology, are any less worth addressing today than 30 years ago.